Abstract: Cardio-cerebrovascular diseases have become one of the largest threats to human health.Atherosclerosis is now recognized as the major pathological basis.Arterial stiffness is associated with morbidity and mortality.As an independent predictor of cardiovascular events,the pulse wave velocity (PWV) is directly related to the elastic modulus,and thus can accurately reflect the degree of stiffness.Ultrasound technique is extensively used in detecting local PWV because of its advantages of simple operation,non-invasive and good real-time performance.The present study presents a summary on the ultrasound-based detection methods for local PWVs regarding to their principles,benefits,limitations and potential trends of the research and development in future.